Savage Wings: Book Three of The Whitechapel Chronicles

Chapter 7

"Why are you even asking me?" I demanded. "You're the seer. You already know what I'm going to do so this whole conversation is pointless."

Josiah held my gaze for a second, before backing away, his face troubled.

"Oh," I said, my eyes widening. "You don't know what I'm going to do, do you?" My lips curled up into a wicked smile and I caught hold of his wrist, revelling in the fact I had stumbled on something completely unexpected, something the seer had clearly been trying to keep secret. He liked secrets, it seemed. Only this wasn't one he could lock away in a room at the top of the tower. This one was etched clearly over his face. "Why don't you know? Is it because it involves Caelan?"

A flicker of hatred twisted his handsome, dark features as he yanked his arm out of my grasp, but it was quickly replaced by a tide of exhaustion that seemed to seep from every pore and his whole body sagged as he stood there. His eyes fixed on a point in front of him as if he was lost in a daydream and not a particularly pleasant one at that.

"At first, I thought it was because of Caelan, but it's not. If it was, I would be able to see other things in your future, but it's....hazy....dark."

"What do you mean?" I didn't like the sound of dark. I didn't like the sound of it at all.

Josiah rubbed at his temples with thumb and forefinger as if trying to massage away a headache. "You're fading. Every time I try to see...it's like you're fading away. Nothing is clear anymore."

"You mean in the same way you see Lucius?"

"No, no." He dismissed my suggestion with a swipe of his hand. "The Lost aren't bloody easy to find, but once you've discovered one, you can still see them. But you....you're different."

"But you used to be able to see me just fine?"

"Yeah." He smiled as if party to something I knew nothing about and to be honest, I wasn't sure I wanted to know considering the way he was looking at me. "Yeah, I could see you very well indeed."

I ignored the intonation in his voice. "So what's changed and more importantly, when did it change? Was it when I came here?"

He frowned, slicking his tongue along the inside of his bottom lip, pushing it out as he thought. "Nah, it was before. I could see what you would decide to do about Cain. That much was always clear. I also saw what would happen to you at your husband's compound and what you would do to escape." His white eyes flickered towards me and I flushed, causing him to emit a low chuckle. "But then, after that, something changed. I don't know what it was. You started to fade and I would get only brief snapshots of you, which would then quickly disappear. There was nothing I could ever really hold onto. And now...." He trailed off, chewing on his lip as he stared at me.

"Now, what?"

"Now, sometimes....just sometimes....it's like you're not there at all. It's as if you don't even exist."

I tried to stay calm. I tried to hold onto something, anything that would keep my stomach from rolling over again and again like I was staggering across the helm of some great boat being thrown back and forth over the churning tide. And I didn't want to ask. I didn't. But that awful, burning sense of morbid curiosity just wouldn't quit.

"Do I die, Josiah?" I said with a tremble to my voice. "Is that why you can't see me? Am I going to die?"

The seer didn't reply.

"Josiah! Tell me!"

"I don't know!" he thundered, ripping the towel from his shoulders and hurling it across the room. "I can't tell you what I don't know! You might die. You might not. But I can't see any of it. I get glimpses, but I can't tie them to anything, to any event, place or time and when I try to lock onto something, it's as if...."